Shares in St. Joe, VeriFone and JCPenney are beaten down ... and look to stay that way for a good, long while

St. Joe

St. Joe (JOE), one of the biggest private landowners in Florida, hasn’t had a lot of good news lately. Sure, quarterly earnings beat some very low expectations, but that’s small solace for a steep decline in revenue, led by ugly sales of commercial real estate and rural land.

Ongoing sluggishness in rural land sales is the biggest drag on profitability, and there’s little reason to think that will change soon.

Indeed, in another blow, hedge-fund manager David Einhorn — who has a short position in St. Joe — just claimed a victory for his contention that the market greatly overstates the value of the company’s land.